" I as contacted by a heritage adviser working for the current owners early last year and invited to look at the site with them. We were subsequently allowed to survey the site last December and established that not only is a section of the original canal edge visible at ground level, but also that the ground level created when the railway line was laid up the flight of locks is higher than the previous canal level, raising the very real possibility that one or more of the locks still exists below ground level. This would be consistent with our findings elsewhere on the canal where features have been buried rather than removed.

The first lock and basin of the Uttoxeter Canal were reopened in 2005, in a £625k partnership project between volunteers, British Waterways, local and regional authorities, backed by the European Regional Development Fund. The 2009 restoration feasibility study demonstrated that the line of the canal from Froghall as far as Denstone was largely extant and could be restored with minimal deviations from the original line in Oakamoor and Alton, and in a few places where it was crossed by the later railway line. New alignments for the canal in all these locations have been identified. In 2012, the Trust began restoration works further down the canal at Crumpwood, in the project we all know as CVLLP7. The grant of £105k was used to restore Bridge 70, clear the line of the canal and towpath in that area, laying 250m of new towpath in the process. We were greatly assisted by CVLLP partners in various parts of this project, and especially by Staffs Moorlands district Council whose legal team found a way for the trust to acquire Bridge 70 and complete the works. Other Partners from SWT, RSPB and SCC were hugely helpful in different ways with both this project and the milepost reinstatement project CVLLP8.

Since then volunteers have cleared an additional 1.5km of towpath and have uncovered the site of three locks and other heritage structures along the line of the canal, including the grade II listed and unique Crumpwood Weir, where boats previously crossed the River Churnet. We also completed the line of mileposts all the way to Uttoxeter, and have created a walking route from the town into the valley as far as Oakamoor. Several of you will have joined our site visit after a Partnership Board meeting at Alton Castle, when we started to talk about a future project to put a section of canal back into water, potentially for use by young canoeists from Kenelm Trust, and to reinstate over a mile of towpath for walkers. We are still keen to progress this project, though like many other organisations the last 12 months have all but stopped our volunteer activities.

The planning application therefore comes as a huge blow to us and we are contacting both our own supporters and other friends in the Churnet Valley, including yourselves, to enlist any support we can in preserving the line of the canal through Froghall. It may be that you feel that your organisation is able to declare its support for us as a CVLLP Partner in a response to the planning application, or that you have individual team members or volunteers who would be happy to do this. We would be grateful for any support that you might be able to give at what is frankly a make or break moment for the Trust. If this application goes through there is literally no alternative way to restore the canal until houses which have not yet even been built are demolished, which will not be in any of our lifetimes.

The application, SMD/2020/0684, may be viewed by following this link http://publicaccess.staffsmoorlands.gov.uk/portal/servlets/ApplicationSearchServlet?PKID=142566

There is more information about the planning application, as well as a map of the canal and answers to some of the questions we have already been asked on our website https://cuct.org.uk/news/158/proposed-housing-froghall-would-permanently-block-uttoxeter-canal-restoration"